


Supposed To Be

by OfEndlessWonder



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27062488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfEndlessWonder/pseuds/OfEndlessWonder
Summary: Supercat week, day seven: role reversal. An encounter with a mysterious type of Kryptonite leaves Kara human... and Cat with Supergirl's powers. What could go wrong?
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant
Comments: 25
Kudos: 190





	Supposed To Be

Kara was awake for all of ten seconds before she realised that something was wrong.

There was a crick in her neck, a pain in her ribs, and when she shot up in bed and tried to see through the wall of apartment to look at the outside world beyond, she just ended up staring at the exposed brick.

She was powerless, and unlike the other times it had happened, she had absolutely no idea how.

Fighting back a wave of panic, Kara reached for her phone and speed dialled Alex’s number, waiting impatiently for her to pick up.

“This had better be an emergency,” she groaned, answering on the sixth ring. “It’s a _Saturday_ , Kara. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

Kara hadn’t even thought to check, but a quick glance at her watch told her that it was just past six a.m., and she winced. “I don’t have my powers.”

“You what?” Alex transformed from tired to alert in seconds, and Kara could imagine her sitting up in her bed a few blocks away, spine straightening and eyes widening as she absorbed her sister’s words.

“Me. Powerless.”

“Did you blow them out last night?” The frown in Alex’s voice was audible, and Kara sighed.

“No. That guy barely put up a fight, I hardly had to use them.”

“Okay, that’s weird,” Alex said, speaking slowly, mind no doubt whirling with possibilities. “We need to get you down to the DEO so we can run some tests. I’ll come and pick you up – can you be trusted not to injure yourself before I get there?”

“You break your arm _one_ time,” Kara muttered, already climbing out of bed – and the way she tripped over the pair of Supergirl boots she’d abandoned on her floor last night, nearly going flying, didn’t really strengthen her case.

Luckily, Alex had hung up before she could hear Kara’s exclamation of surprise, and she managed to get herself ready without further incident.

She stepped out onto the sidewalk and squinted as the early morning sun hit her eyes. Usually, she could dull her powers, and therefore her senses, but she didn’t have that luxury today, everything seeming heightened and she _hated_ it.

She hated how vulnerable she felt, felt like a part of her was missing, and she never realised how much she relied on her powers until they were stripped from her.

There were some advantages, she supposed, enjoying the feeling of the rays of sunlight on her skin, but she’d gladly go a lifetime without feeling them again if it meant she’d never be without her powers for the rest of her long life.

Alex’s car screeched to the curb a moment later, and Kara slipped into the front seat, turning to find her sister’s face tight with anxiety. Kara knew she wasn’t the only one that struggled with being vulnerable. Alex worried, too – she _always_ worried about her, but at least usually, there was only a very short list of things that could cause her harm. But now? Now practically anything could strike her down, probably even the common cold, considering she’d never needed (or been able) to build up any kind of immune system.

“Are you _sure_ you haven’t overdone it recently?” Alex asked as she pulled onto the street, her fingers tight around the steering wheel.

“Yes. I know what pushing it feels like, Alex, and I’m telling you I haven’t.”

That did little to assuage her worry, and Kara glanced at the speedometer when Alex’s foot pressed harder on the gas. The journey wasn’t far, but she was relieved when Alex pulled into the underground carpark of the DEO. Almost as soon as she’d killed the engine, Alex was ushering Kara into the building, guiding her to the Medbay with a hand around her elbow. She was quickly wrestled onto a bed, and Kara steeled herself to be poked and prodded.

The prick of the needle was always the worst part, and Kara looked away, focusing her gaze on the floor, drawing patterns on the tile with her eyes.

“Do a full workup on this,” Alex instructed the junior agent she’d summoned to help, handing him the blood sample. As he hurried away, Alex continued to examine her, but Kara could tell, from the way her eyebrows were pinched into a tight frown, that she had absolutely no idea what was wrong with her.

“J’onn is interviewing the guy you brought in last night,” Alex said, satisfied that she’d run every test she could think of, to no avail. “Seeing if he knows anything.”

“You really think a lowlife alien arm’s dealer could - ” Kara cut herself off, mind flashing back to the night before, to the quick scan she’d done of the warehouse where he’d been hiding, the weapons and technology he’d been planning to sell on the black market.

“What?”

“I… when I was looking around the place, pretty much everything was weaponry, but there was one box that wasn’t. I thought it was weird, so I went to have a closer look…”

“What was it?”

“It was crystals. I didn’t think anything of it, but now that I think about it… they looked a bit like Kryptonite. But they weren’t green, they were orange.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this before?”

“I forgot all about it! It didn’t seem important at the time.”

Alex shook her head, exasperated. “I think everything that we seized in that warehouse was brought back here. Wait here, and I’ll go and check it out.”

“Let me help.”

“Absolutely not.” Alex’s hands came to rest on her shoulders, pushing her back down onto the bed when Kara rose to her feet in an attempt to follow her, and without her superstrength, Alex could overpower her easily. “We don’t know what affect it’ll have on you. What affect it’s _already_ had on you. I’m letting you anywhere near the stuff.”

“What if it’s dangerous for you, too?”

“Regular Kryptonite isn’t,” Alex pointed out, but that did little to assuage Kara’s fears. “I’ll be careful,” she promised. “Just sit tight, and hopefully we’ll have some news for you soon.”

Kara sighed, but didn’t protest as Alex left the room, lying down on the bed and trying to relax as she waited for her to return. But it was impossible, and she quickly grew bored. Patience had never been one of her strong suits, let alone patience in a situation like this, where she felt helpless and useless, no better than a child, and she sighed, deciding that she couldn’t stay there any longer.

She wouldn’t go and search Alex out, unwilling to face her wrath, but surely Alex couldn’t get too mad at her if she just went and sat in the command centre. It would at least give her something to look at, someone to annoy with questions, and she was happy to see that it was Susan Vasquez who was on duty, smiling warmly at Kara as she saw her approach.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the Medbay?”

“It’s so _boring_ in there.” Kara sat down in a vacant chair, spinning herself around until she was dizzy. “Alex won’t get mad at you.”

“I’m pretty sure she will.”

“Nah, she’ll aim it all at me,” Kara assured her. “Please tell me something interesting is happening.”

“I’m afraid the only interesting thing that’s happened around here this morning is Supergirl losing her powers.”

“Ugh. Want to have a wheelie chair race?”

“No, because if you fall off it and break something, it’s _my_ ass on the line.”

“You’re boring.”

“Thanks, Kara.”

“You’re welcome.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t long until Alex re-appeared, a disapproving look on her face when she noticed that Kara wasn’t where she left her.

“Any news?”

“Not good news,” Alex said, running a hand across her face. “You were right. We’ve run some preliminary tests and it seems like it _was_ Kryptonite, but it obviously has very different effects to the ones we’ve seen before.”

“It took my powers.” Anxiety swirled around Kara’s gut, because at least whenever she suffered from a power burnout, she knew that they’d come back with a sudden rush of adrenaline. “But they’ll come back, right?”

“The thing is… well, from the limited research that we have, and from what your cousin said when I called him to ask if he’s ever seen anything like this before… it seems that it doesn’t _take_ your powers. It transfers them.”

“It does _what_?” Kara’s face creased into a frown, because she’d never heard of anything like this before.

“That’s what it was designed to do. Steal powers from Kryptonians, and give them to someone else.”

“So that guy down in holding? He’s got my powers?”

“No. I almost wish he did, because that would be easier, but it seems that he had no idea what he was selling.”

“But then… who’s got them? How does it work?”

“We think it might spread through touch. You touch the crystals, and then whoever _you_ touch gets your powers. You looked at the crystals after he was already in custody, right?”

“Yeah, but then afterwards I didn’t see anyone… oh. Oh no.” Realisation dawned, quick and sudden, and Kara felt like her stomach had just dropped to her feet. “Oh, Rao, no.”

“What?” Alex stepped close, a hand wrapping around Kara’s wrist. “Who were you with?”

“I went back to the office,” Kara said, her voice deathly quiet. “Cat called when I was on my way home to ask if I could help her find something, and I… I went.”

“Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?” Alex asked, her eyes closed, and her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

“That I _think_ I might have accidentally given Cat Grant my powers?”

“Cat Grant, the Queen of all Media, the woman who wanted to out you as Supergirl to the whole world, _that_ Cat Grant?”

“Um…”

“Are you _trying_ to send me into an early grave, Kara? What have I done to deserve this?”

“It’s not like I knew!” Kara exclaimed, panic rising in her throat and making it hard to breathe. “Oh, Rao, this cannot be happening.”

“I hope to _god_ that it isn’t,” Alex said, eyes still closed. “But just in-case it is, we need to get over there. Now.”

//

When she woke up, Cat realised three things in quick succession.

Number one: She was floating several inches off of her bed, covers still wrapped around her.

Number two: Instead of looking up at her beige ceiling, she could see _through_ the roof and up to the blue, blue morning sky, the sun already high and not a single cloud in sight.

Number three: She could hear _everything_. And not just the distant sound of cars on the street far below, no. She could hear a baby screaming as though it was sitting right beside her, could hear whispered conversations and the sound of subway trains rattling through the tunnels underground.

It was overwhelming, a sensory overload, and Cat let out an undignified yelp, crashing back down onto the mattress so hard that she felt the floor beneath her shake, her heart pounding inside her chest.

She closed eyes, wondering if she was still dreaming, _praying_ that she was dreaming, but she could even hear the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, felt panic blooming through her body.

Reaching for the phone on her bedside table with shaking fingers, Cat hovered over her former assistant’s name, because where weird things happened – like suddenly waking up with superpowers – Kara was usually involved.

She pressed the button, but underestimated her new strength, and felt the phone splinter in her hand. Swearing, Cat unclenched her fingers, watching bits of broken plastic fall onto the bed. Why did this have to happen on one of the rare weekends that Carter was with his father? She could have used some help.

Then again, considering she’d only been awake for five minutes and had already crushed her phone, perhaps that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The prospect of staying in bed, closing her eyes and going back to sleep and hoping everything had righted itself by the time she woke up again was tempting, but Cat suspected that she wouldn’t be so lucky.

Though she’d never visited it, she knew Kara’s home address, and perhaps a trip downtown (although she had no idea how she’d manage to make it there, considering how overloaded she was just from being in her bedroom), was what was needed to get to the bottom of this.

But she couldn’t exactly go marching out of her apartment wearing the black silk nightgown she slept in, and she tried to quiet her panicked mind as she made herself look slightly more presentable.

Her movements were painfully slow, carefully controlled, but she still managed to put a hole through the drywall of her bedroom wall when she caught herself on it after a stumble, and _then_ , when she glared at the offending shoe that had tripped her up, she managed to laser the rug and singe the wooden floor beneath it.

How the hell did Kara even begin to control her powers? Cat couldn’t imagine having to live like this every day, constantly dampening her senses, and she didn’t even know where to begin. Trying to look into the mirror to apply her make-up only ended with her staring into the apartment building opposite, where she got an eyeful of a middle-aged man in the shower.

That was the end of _that_ , and she was sure she looked a state but she didn’t much care, fear driving her from her chair and into her closet. She ripped the first shirt she tried to put on, so she forced herself to take a deep breath before she tried another – one without buttons, this time.

Once she was dressed, she made her way to her front door, wishing she couldn’t hear the sound of the couple who lived below arguing about whose turn it was to wash the dishes. Two floors below that, a vacuum cleaner was turned on, so loud she felt like it was pressed right against her eardrum, and it sent her falling to her knees in her hallway, hands clamped over her ears and her face pressed against her knees. 

Cat had suffered from migraines her whole life, and this felt like one on steroids, her head pounding as it tried to adjust to so much information at once. She felt like tearing out her hair, felt like she was going mad, and she didn’t know how long she sat there before there was a knock on the door.

“Cat?” Kara’s voice called through the wood, and Cat lifted her head, saw through it to see her former assistant on the other side, worry on her face and on that of the other woman beside her, dressed all in black, who Cat vaguely recognised as her sister. “Are you in there?”

Lifting herself up took an enormous amount of effort, but Cat managed, just enough to flick open the lock before she collapsed back on the floor, Kara stepping through the open door and immediately kneeling beside her, and oh, god, Cat could see _through_ her, could see the skeleton beneath her skin, flesh and bone and sinew, and she felt bile rise in the back of her throat.

“Cat? Are you alright?”

Cat shook her head, closed her eyes, but she could still see through her eyelids. She pressed her palms into them, wished she could gouge them out, anything to get it to _stop_.

“Cat, shh, it’s okay.” Kara’s hands were gentle, warm, when they settled on her wrists. “Here, put these on.” Kara slipped her glasses off her nose and guided them onto Cat’s face, and Cat blinked, astonished, when she realised that now all she could see was Kara’s pale, anxious face – and not her skull. “Better?”

“What…” Cat reached up to touch the black frames. “How?”

“They’re lined with lead,” Kara said, as though that explained _anything_.

Behind her, the other woman, who had followed Kara into the apartment, spoke up. “Should we really be telling her that? You shouldn’t have even come here, Kara. You should’ve let me handle it.”

“She probably would have lasered you to death, Alex.” Kara sounded annoyed, but her hands, still on Cat’s skin, were soft, her thumbs rubbing comforting circles on the underside of her wrist. “Besides, I know exactly what she’s feeling.”

“Was that _really_ necessary to say? I knew you should’ve worn the suit.”

“Because Supergirl strolling into Cat Grant’s lobby wouldn’t raise even more questions?”

“You’re supposed to keep a low profile.”

“I think the cat is well and truly out of the bag now,” Kara snapped.

“The cat has been out of the bag for a long time, Supergirl.” Even though she could still hear far much more than any one person ever needed to, focusing on Kara and Alex’s bickering made it easier to bear. “I’d say it’s nice to know that you finally trust me, but I suspect you wouldn’t have had this not happened to me.”

“I…” Kara flailed for something to say, and had she _really_ thought that she had Cat fooled?

“What _has_ happened to me?” She asked, before Kara got distracted.

“We think there was some kind of… power transference.” It was Alex who answered, her mouth downturned, and Cat could tell that she wasn’t pleased about any of this. “Supergirl… _Kara_ ,” she corrected, frown deepening, “was exposed to a substance that somehow gave her powers to you.”

Cat took a moment to absorb that information, and at least that sounded like it wasn’t a situation with any kind of permanence. “So if you expose me to that same substance, I can give them back to her?”

“We’re… not sure. But it’s as good a place to start as any.” Alex ran a hand through her hair, looking exhausted despite the early hour. “Are you up to leaving the apartment?”

It sounded like torture, but Cat knew that her home wasn’t the best place for her to get the help she so desperately needed. “I… I think so.”

“I’ll be right here,” Kara said, her voice soft, helping Cat to her feet and keeping a hand wrapped around Cat’s elbow. “It’s going to feel really overwhelming, but it won’t be for long.”

“Just don’t let her fly away,” Alex muttered, leading the way down the hall and stabbing at the button for the elevator viciously – Cat tried not to focus on the creaking sound of the cables as it rushed up to meet them.

“She’s scared of heights, Alex, I don’t think she’ll be flying anywhere.”

“I wish you’d stop talking about me like I’m not here.” She might be out of it, but she was still Cat Grant, and there were some things that she just would not tolerate. “I _can_ hear you, you know.”

“Sorry, Ms Grant.” Kara looked apologetic; Alex did not.

Stepping out onto the sidewalk below, Cat flinched as the sunlight hit her, brilliantly blinding and making her skin hum, her hairs standing on end and she remembered enough about Kryptonian physiology from her research on Superman to know that it was the sun’s radiation that gave them their powers.

It made her feel invincible, and she tried to focus on that feeling rather than the pounding inside her skull as she was assaulted by all kinds of noise, the screeching of car tires, the yapping of a nearby dog, children yelling as they played in the park three blocks over.

She was bundled into an SUV that was parked illegally on the curb, and she hoped, when Alex threw the car in drive and sped away, that she wasn’t about to be taken to a black site, never to be seen again.

But Kara was sitting close beside her, and though her sister might want to make Cat a prisoner, Cat was sure that Kara wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. She’d never admit it aloud, but she trusted her implicitly, after everything that she’d done for Cat over the past few years.

“Where are we going?” Cat asked, when Alex pulled into an underground parking structure downtown.

“We should have blindfolded her,” Alex said, expertly reversing into a parking space flanked by a pair of identical SUVs, and if Cat had any doubts that she _wasn’t_ heading into a shadowy government facility, they were quickly dwindling by the second.

“Behave, Alex.”

“I just don’t think it’s wise for the so-called Queen of all Media to know where our headquarters are.” Alex slammed the car door behind her when she got out, and Cat winced, feeling it like a knife in her skull. “She could expose us.”

“She won’t.”

“She nearly exposed _you_ , Kara!” Alex’s glare was vicious, and directed solely at Cat, big sister mode well and truly activated. “Or have you forgotten that? Because I haven’t.”

“Neither have I,” Cat interjected, half-way out the backseat, feeling the need to defend herself. “I reacted poorly, and I regret the things I said to you that night.” She turned towards Kara, regretting that they hadn’t been able to have this conversation sooner. “I’m sorry I put you in an impossible position. I never should have confronted you.”

“I… it’s okay.” Kara looked like a deer in the headlights, and Cat wondered how they’d gotten to be here, secrets exposed under terrible fluorescent lighting beneath a building Cat never thought she’d ever see inside.

Kara’s mind must be reeling just as Cat’s was, and she couldn’t imagine what it must be like for her to be without her powers. She wondered if she felt as vulnerable as Cat did – despite the fact that she was no literally _invulnerable_ , Cat felt raw, bare, _weak_ , found it to be an enormous effort just to put one foot in-front of the other, and how did Kara cope with this every day? How did it not drive her mad?

“We don’t have time for this,” Alex sighed, grabbing hold of both Kara and Cat’s wrists and tugging them towards the elevator at the back of the parking lot. Her touch was rough where Kara’s had been so gentle, and Cat resisted the urge to shake her off, well aware that she still had no idea of her current strength.

“Where are we going?” Kara asked, narrowing her eyes when she watched Alex press the button for the 5th floor. “That’s where we take the prisoners, you can’t lock her up!”

“I’m not locking her up.” Alex looked exhausted, and Cat had no doubt she hadn’t expected to have deal with any of this on a Saturday. “But she has these new powers, and no control of them, and I just think it might be a good idea to put her somewhere where that’s not going to be an issue, just until we figure out what the fuck we’re doing.”

“I actually think that’s a good idea.” Much as she despised the thought of being thrown inside a cell, if that the safest option, then she’d deal with the claustrophobia it would cause her. “If you can put me somewhere that blocks out this godforsaken noise, then all the better.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

When the elevator doors opened, Cat was greeted by more security than she’d ever seen. There were dozens of heavily armed agents lining the hall, and they passed through more biometric locks than she could count before Alex pushed open a heavy-duty steel door and waved Cat inside.

Within, the walls were bare, a cot with a thin blanket draped over the top lining one wall, and a toilet and a sink set against another.

“How quaint.”

“It’s not exactly the five star hotels I’m sure you’re used to, but it’s the best I can do.”

“That’s quite alright.” The further into the room she stepped, the more the cacophony of noise in her head dulled, and she let out a sigh of relief as she sank down onto the cot, fingers rubbing at her temples. “What is this place?”

“It’s lead-lined, just like your glasses,” Alex explained, leaning against the doorframe and frowning down at her phone. “It was built in-case we ever needed to contain a Kryptonian threat, with the aim of stripping them of the majority of their powers. It’s not as good as Kryptonite, but we can’t risk having too much of that around. You’ll be safe in here.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m going to go and fetch the thing that we think did this, to see if it’s reversible. Are you coming, Kara?”

“I think I’ll stay here.” Kara was hovering a few feet away from Cat, a worried look on her face, teeth ensnaring her bottom lip. “Keep an eye on her.”

“Okay. I’ll be back soon.” Alex closed the door behind her, lock clicking into place, but Cat didn’t much care because it was shutting out the last of the noise, and she almost felt normal, could breathe properly again.

“My god, Kara, how do you deal with that every day?”

“I’ve had a lot of practice.” She hovered just inside the doorway, wringing her hands in-front of her, and though Cat had known she and Supergirl were one and the same for a long time now, it was still strange to see her without her glasses, her hair escaping from her hastily-tied ponytail and framing her face, Supergirl in Kara Danvers’ clothing.

“But when you got here? Those first few days?”

“They weren’t great,” Kara said, her smile wry. “But my cousin helped a lot. Things got better when I got the glasses. Eventually it became second nature to dull all my senses. It’s weird to not need to do that. In a way, I feel…” She glanced down at her hands. “I feel so much more with my powers gone. I experience things so differently.”

“I can imagine.” Cat could feel the difference, being in this room versus outside, after just a few hours with powers – she couldn’t imagine how it would feel to lose them when they’d been all she’d ever known for most of her life.

“It’s nice in a way. To not have to overthink each and every movement. To be able to hug my sister without worrying I’m going to break her ribs.”

Cat shuddered at the imagery, at what _she_ was now capable of, and she’d never be able to live with herself if she accidentally caused someone harm.

“But I wouldn’t give me powers up for anything.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and Cat wondered how vulnerable she felt without them.

“Well, you can have them back. Once upon a time, I’d have killed to walk in Supergirl’s shoes, but now,” Cat shuddered. “Now I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s not all bad.”

“If you can teach me how to feel like my skull isn’t splitting open, then perhaps I’d be able to see the good.”

“It’s… hard to describe. But I can try and explain it. If… if this doesn’t work.”

“It had _better_ work. This city needs its hero, and that’s not me. I can’t put on that ridiculous suit.”

“I like that suit,” Kara said, the tiniest of pouts on her mouth, and it hadn’t been Cat’s intention to offend her.

“Oh, it’s perfectly fine on you, but on a fifty year old mother of two who’s several inches shorter than you?”

“You look good in anything,” Kara said, her voice quiet, and Cat tried not to preen at the compliment. “But I’m sure it’s not going to come to that.”

_It had better not_ , Cat thought, _because I’m not getting anywhere near that thing._ “How _did_ this happen, anyway? Why me?”

“We’re not really sure, but we think it spreads through touch. So, I touched the crystals, and then when you called me back into the office, I… I touched you.” She blushed as she said it, though it had been entirely innocent, a hand on the small of Cat’s back as she’d glanced over some layouts, for old times’ sake.

Cat remembered Kara’s fingers burning through the thin material of her sweater, remembered her heart upticking (and oh, god, had Kara heard that with her goddamn bat ears?) at the contact, quickly realising that her idea to promote Kara to get her out of Cat’s direct orbit, to _stop_ the growing feelings she was developing for her former assistant, wasn’t working out at all.

She _knew_ she should have left the city, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. National City was her home, was _Carter’s_ home, and CatCo was her baby, and Cat would never be able to leave it behind, no matter what.

“Well, I suppose at least it was someone that you knew. Could you imagine if you’d accidentally empowered a random person on the street? Although it seems like your sister might have preferred that.”

“I’m sorry about her. She’s just… protective.”

“And I haven’t exactly endeared myself to her,” Cat surmised. “I’m sure you’ve told her many horror stories from your time as my assistant.”

“Maybe a few,” Kara admitted, her head bowed. “But she’ll come around.”

Cat wasn’t so sure about that.

Alex returned soon after, a briefcase tucked under her arm. Kara eyed it warily when Alex stepped into the cell, setting the case down on the cot beside Cat and popping it open. Inside, orange crystals glowed faintly – they looked fairly inconspicuous, and Cat had no idea how something so small could have fucked up her day quite to spectacularly.

She glanced up and found both Alex and Kara were looking at her expectantly. “So I just… touch them?”

“That’s all I did.”

She felt ridiculous, but she did as she was told, reaching out a hand and running her fingers over the edge of one of the crystals. They were cool to the touch, but unremarkable, and Cat didn’t feel anything.

“And then…” She trailed off, turning towards Kara, who took several uncertain steps forward until she was in-front of her, and Cat wrapped a hand around her wrist.

She wondered if Kara’s heart sped up at the touch, like Cat’s had the night before, but with her senses dimmed by the lead-lined walls, she’d never know. Physical contact between them was rare, and never sustained, but now Cat couldn’t help but take in the feel of Kara’s skin beneath her fingertips, warm and so very soft. Her eyes met Cat’s, so deep a blue that she could drown in them, and for a moment, Cat forgot where she was, forgot _why_ she was there, magnetised by the look on Kara’s face.

“Anything?” Alex’s voice made Cat jump, breaking the spell that had fallen between them, and Kara seemed a little dazed as she turned away.

“I can’t tell in here,” she said, already crossing over to the door. Cat trailed after her, but she didn’t need to see Kara’s shake of the head to know that it hadn’t worked, because as the door opened, sounds filtered in from all around that Cat knew she’d never usually hear.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Alex muttered, slamming her palm against the cell wall, and Cat only refrained from doing the same because she didn’t want to put her fist through it. “That should have worked. Did you do anything different, Kara?”

“I… I don’t think so.” Her eyebrows were drawn close together, and Cat realised that she hadn’t been prepared for this _not_ to work, had been confident that she’d now have her powers back, and she looked lost without them. “Maybe we could try again? Touch them for longer?”

Cat felt a little ridiculous, stroking some crystals, but if it would help… well, she was willing to try. But after several more attempts, including spending a good five minutes with one hand in the briefcase, and one hand in Kara’s (five excruciatingly _long_ minutes, and thank god Kara couldn’t hear her heartbeat anymore, because it was pounding against her ribcage), Cat still had powers that she desperately didn’t want, and Kara was left human.

“What now?” Cat asked, when no-one else seemed inclined to, and Alex ran a frustrated hand through her hair.

“I don’t know. We’re going to have to run some more tests, do some more research. I’ll call your cousin and see if he knows anything that can help us, but… I’m not hopeful. We’ve never dealt with anything like this before. It could take some time to find a solution to this.”

Cat didn’t know who that news upset more – her, Kara or Alex. Certainly, no-one looked happy, and Cat was ready for this to be over, but it looked like it was really only just beginning.

“Just… sit tight,” Alex said, with a sigh, her phone already in her hand.

“For how long?” Cat hadn’t minded being confined when she thought it was just going to be brief, but if Alex thought she was going to sit idly by behind a locked door for _days_ , then oh, she was sorely mistaken.

“I’m not making you a prisoner, Cat. You can walk out that door any time you like.”

“Oh, please, I’m not stupid. There’s no _way_ you’d let me out of here when I’ve got the powers of a Kryptonian.”

“You really think I could do anything to stop you?” Alex’s distaste was plain to see in her eyes, and Cat knew she was a difficult boss but she didn’t think she deserved quite this level of scorn.

She didn’t _like_ being spoken to like she was a piece of dirt beneath someone’s shoe. It had been years since anyone had dared to try, and Cat felt her hackles rise with the itch to lash out, to make Alex rue the day she’d chosen to look down on her. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Oh yeah?” Alex turned, looked a second away from squaring up to her, and Cat clenched her hands into fists.

“Guys!” Kara slid in between the two of them, stretching one hand out towards her sister, and the other towards Cat, fingers just brushing against the top of her sternum, and it was probably pathetic, how all the fight seeped out of her at such a simple touch. “Can we not do this? Fighting isn’t going to help anyone.”

“If she’d stop _pissing_ me off,” Alex started, and Cat felt her lip curl into a snarl, “then - ”

“Alex,” Kara’s voice was pleading, “please do not finish that sentence. Go and call Cla – uh, my cousin. I’ll wait here.”

For a moment, Cat thought that Alex was going to disagree, but then she gave Kara a curt nod and spun on her heel, marching away, out of the cell door and down the hallway beyond as she slammed it shut behind her.

“You shouldn’t rile her up,” Kara said, and Cat scoffed, turning and throwing herself back down on the cot. “She’s just trying to help. None of us have ever had to deal with this before.”

“I know.” Cat tilted her head back against the wall, feeling completely drained of energy. “I’m sorry, it’s just… Today has been a lot. Waking up with superpowers, finally getting confirmation that you _are_ Supergirl, your delightfully welcoming sister, being locked up, finding out I might be _stuck_ with powers I don’t want for the foreseeable future… it’s a lot to handle.”

“Yeah.” After a moment of hesitation, Kara sat down beside her, close enough for their shoulders to brush. “It’s a lot for me to handle, too.” She leant forward, putting her head in her hands, and Cat reached out, brushing gentle fingers against the small of her back.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Kara looked up, but Cat didn’t move her hand, Kara’s sweater coarse beneath her fingertips. “You didn’t steal my powers on purpose.”

“If I _had_ , I would’ve regretted it very quickly.”

“Do you know how many people would kill to have my powers for a day?”

“Probably a lot,” Cat conceded, “but I would not be one of them.”

“Come on, you’re not even enjoying this a little bit?”

“What is there to enjoy? The horrific personal x-rays of each and every person I encounter? The ear-splitting headache from every sound in the goddamn city hitting my ears at once? Being able to break someone’s ribs inadvertently with a hug? Or laser their head off if I blink wrong?”

“They’re not all bad,” Kara said, her voice soft. “You can _fly_. You can move faster than the speed of light. Like, you could go from here to Paris on your lunch break.”

“Is _that_ why I can’t get a hold of you sometimes?”

“Maybe.” Kara’s grin was cheeky. “Come on.” She climbed to her feet, reaching out a hand towards Cat.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m going to show you that powers can be fun.”

“I don’t know, Kara…” She eyed her hand with reluctance, because it didn’t sound like a very good idea. “Your sister…”

“Will be pre-occupied by trying to figure out a way to reverse this. Come _on_ , Cat. If nothing else, it’ll be a good distraction.”

Well, Cat supposed that she did have a point – sitting here and worrying wasn’t going to do either of them any good, after all.

“Very well,” she said, her sigh dramatic, making a show of getting to her feet. She expected Kara to let go of her hand once she was upright, but instead she laced their fingers together and tugged Cat over to the door.

She tried to let go, once they were out in the hallway, terrified of the rush of strength that she felt return to her, terrifyed of unwittingly breaking some of Kara’s bones, but Kara didn’t let her, just held on tighter, and Cat found that, undefeatable though she may technically be, she was completely and utterly powerless, and could do nothing but trail along in Kara’s wake.

//

Kara took her up to the roof, breathing in the crisp morning air and once again enjoying the feeling of the sun on her skin. It eased the panic of their attempt to reverse their power swap somewhat, although worry still sat, heavy as a stone, in the pit of her stomach.

“I come up here a lot,” she said to Cat, their fingers still intertwined. “It helps me clear my head.”

Cat was squinting in the sunlight, Kara’s glasses still perched on her nose, and it might have been years since Kara crashed to Earth, but she could remember all too well those first few, overwhelming days, before she’d met Jeremiah, before she’d learned how to control her powers, the terror clawing at the back of her throat, the itching desire to scratch out her eyes and her ears, anything to stop the noise.

But she remembered the good things, too. The elation of her first flight, the wind whipping through her hair, feeling freer than she’d ever felt before. Slicing through the cool water of the sea, sitting in the murky depths and watching life swarm around her. The pride in stopping the bad guy and saving someone’s life.

She wanted Cat to feel that, too, to see that it wasn’t all bad, that there could be light in even the darkest of situations.

Cat would scoff if she said that aloud, would accuse her of being too optimistic, but sometimes she _had_ to be, otherwise she could crumble.

“It’s certainly a beautiful view.” Cat followed her towards the edge of the building, taking in the sight of the city spread before them. “Not quite as good as the one from my balcony, of course, but I can certainly see the appeal. You know, I always wondered what this building was. You’d never guess it was alien hunters HQ.”

“How did you find out our official name?” Kara teased, grinning when Cat shot her a glare. “I don’t know what it used to be, but we only moved in a few months ago. We used to have a desert base until it was pointed out that many identical SUVs driving out there wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.”

“So now you hide in plain sight instead,” Cat said, nodding to herself. “Much like Supergirl does as Kara Danvers.”

“It has its perks.” Kara glanced away from Cat’s probing gaze, because she still wasn’t sure how she felt about Cat knowing who she really was. True, she said she’d known for a while, but _knowing_ that she knew was different. She’d used to seek Cat out for advice, hidden beneath the weight of her cape and knowing that Cat would treat as an equal, but now she knew she’d doubt herself, even though Cat had probably known all along. “So, want to learn how to fly?”

“I… _no_.” Cat looked scandalised, and Kara tried not to laugh at the look on her face. “Are you planning on flinging me over the edge of this building?” She looked suspiciously from Kara to the ledge ahead of them, and Kara shook her head.

“Like I could drag you anywhere you didn’t want to go.” And she didn’t even necessarily mean just because Cat had her super strength – Cat Grant went where she wanted to, and nowhere else. “I was more thinking you could just like… float.”

“What if I _float_ all the way up to space?” Cat withdrew her hand from Kara’s to wrap it around herself.

“I mean, that is technically possible because I’ve done it, but you’re very unlikely to do it by accident.”

“You… you did what?”

“I flew up to space. To stop Myriad.”

“Is that… is that why it felt like you were saying goodbye?” Cat asked, frown on her face, and Kara remembered it, remembered it being one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do.

“I didn’t think I’d be coming back,” she admitted. “But I did, thanks to my sister.”

“You two would do anything for one another.”

“Yeah.” Kara couldn’t stop her smile. “I know she’s been a pain in the ass to you today, but it’s just because she’s worried about me.”

“I know. It’s not like I’ve given her any reason to trust me, after all.”

“I trust you,” Kara said, without even having to think about it, because she _did_ , but Cat only scoffed. “I know you think I don’t, because I hid my secret from you, but that… I _would_ have trusted you with it, but… I didn’t want to give up CatCo.”

_I didn’t want to give up_ you _,_ was what she didn’t say.

“I didn’t want to be Supergirl full-time. I didn’t want you to look at me differently. I didn’t want things between us to change, so I… I lied. And I’m sorry, but it’s… it’s what I felt like I had to do, but it doesn’t mean I don’t trust you. And even if I didn’t, then, I do now, because you’ve known for all this time but you never said a word. You never treated me differently. And I’m more grateful for that than you’ll ever know.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Cat’s eyes glossy, and Kara hadn’t mean to make her _cry_.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Kara said, shrugging. “Just… don’t let things change. I don’t like change.”

“Even if it means a promotion?”

“Well, _that_ I can learn to live with.” Kara grinned, and though she’d been hesitant to move away from being Cat’s assistant, she was starting to thrive, even under Snapper Carr’s iron fist. “Now, stop trying to distract me.”

“Very well.” Cat’s sigh was heavy. “Tell me what to do.”

“Oh, well, it’s kind of hard to explain…” She’d never had to talk someone through her powers before, didn’t even have to think about using them anymore. “You just sort of… push off into the air.”

“How very informative.” Cat’s voice was dry, but her eyes were bright. “Maybe I should rethink that promotion, after all.”

“Nope, no takebacksies.”

“We’re not _five_ , Kara. I _can_ demote you.”

“But you wouldn’t.” Kara was unfazed by Cat’s threats, knowing her as well as she did. “Because that would reflect badly back on you. Make you look like you’d made a bad decision.”

Cat muttered something under her breath – without her superhearing, Kara didn’t quite catch it, but that probably wasn’t a bad thing.

“You don’t have to try, you know. We can go back downstairs.”

“No, you insist that these powers aren’t all bad, and I’d like to prove you wrong.”

Kara chuckled, leaning back against the door that they’d come through to reach the roof, watching as Cat took a deep breath, bending her knees and pushing herself into a jump – and promptly landing back on her feet not a moment later.

The look that she threw Kara was slightly accusatory. “Are you sure you aren’t doing this just to make me look like a fool?”

“It’s trial and error.”

“How did _you_ learn to fly?”

“I jumped off a roof. I fell, the first three times, but on the fourth I stopped myself just before I hit the ground.” Alex had been egging her on from her spot on the garden swing one day when they’d been left to their own devices. “But I wouldn’t recommend doing that here. It’s a bit of a long drop. Not that it’d kill you, but you’d probably put a pretty big hole in the sidewalk.”

Cat shook her head, unimpressed.

It took a few more attempts, but eventually she managed to hover a few inches off the ground, her eyes wide as saucers before panic caught up with her and she crashed back down to the ground.

“Okay, I tried it and I think that’s enough for today.”

“You don’t want to laser vision some targets in the training room?” Kara suggested, because that sounded like something Cat might enjoy. “You can pretend that they’re your new assistant.”

“Why didn’t we go there _first_?” Cat asked, and Kara laughed.

“Come on, then.” She took Cat back inside the building, leading her to another of her favourite places in the DEO. It was always quiet, the agents having their own separate space to train, and Kara liked the solitude, liked to take a breath and let loose every once in a while. “We’ve got re-enforced punching bags, stationary and moving targets, and various weights,” Kara said, pointing everything out. “Knock yourself out.”

Kara took a seat on a bench at the side of the room, wanting to stay out of the way, knowing that new powers could be volatile. She was unsurprised to see Cat relish the opportunity to test her new-found strength, tossing around car-sized weights with next to no effort, which was… well. Awakening something in her, watching the muscles of Cat’s arms work, Kara’s throat going dry and she really wasn’t supposed to be thinking of her _boss_ like that, but… she’d always found Cat attractive, and apparently watching her laser the head off a cardboard cut-out really seemed to do it for her.

“Maybe you had a point, Kara.” There was a smile on Cat’s smile, easy and care-free and the first time Kara had seen her look happy since she’d left her at the office the night before. “These powers do have their perks, after all.”

“Glad to see you’re having fun,” a dry voice called from behind them, and Kara turned to find her sister entering the training room, tablet held in her hands. “You should have told me when you left the cell.” She directed that at Kara, and Kara rolled her eyes.

“You found us, didn’t you? I doubt you had to look very hard.”

“Please tell me you have good news,” Cat said, ignoring their bickering, coming a stop beside Kara’s bench, not even a little out of breath after her exertions, and Kara couldn’t help but feel a twinge of irrational jealousy, knowing she wouldn’t be able to shift any of those weights even an inch.

“Good and bad. I talked to your cousin some more, and he did a little digging at the fortress of solitude to see if there was anything that could help us there, and… well. Based on what we’ve found, we don’t think there’s a way to reverse the process, _but_ ,” she added hastily, no doubt seeing the look of horror on both Cat and Kara’s faces, “the good news is that it seems to be temporary.”

“Temporary?” Cat asked, frown etched onto her face. “For… for how long?”

“We’re not sure,” Alex said, running a hand through her hair. “It could be a few hours, a few days. We can’t find anything concrete, but it _will_ happen.”

Alex’s voice was earnest, like that was supposed to bring them comfort, but it didn’t bring Kara any, because now it was just a waiting game, and patience had never been one of her strong suits. And Rao, it certainly wasn’t one of Cat’s, either.

“And what, exactly, am I supposed to do until then?” Cat asked, the words laced with frustration. “I have a company to run, Agent Danvers, and I can’t very well do that if I’m at risk of injuring someone, or exposing these powers.”

“Can’t you just take a few days off?”

“A… a few days _off_?” Cat looked positively horrified, and Kara couldn’t remember her taking a single sick day in the entire time that she’d worked at CatCo. “That is unacceptable.”

“Well, I don’t really see you having many other options, Ms Grant.”

“What if it takes weeks for this to resolve? I can’t sit at home. And what about the city? It needs Supergirl.”

“The city will be just fine. We have a contingency plan in place.”

Kara winced, assuming that contingency plan was J’onn, knowing how much he hated wearing her skirt (and knowing how much she’d itch with the desire to take his place, with the struggle of feeling useless, sitting at home and watching from the side lines).

“Look, all of us are in uncharted waters right now, and sitting around arguing isn’t going to do anyone any good,” Alex continued. “Let’s just… let’s just take it one day at a time, and hopefully by this time next week this will all just be a bad memory.”

Cat looked like there was a lot more she wanted to say, but as Kara watched her, her shoulders dropped, all the fight leaching out of her as she sighed. “Very well.”

“You’re welcome to stay here, if you want, but I’m not going to force you to. Just… if you _do_ leave, be discrete?”

“If you’re worried about me flying up to my apartment balcony, I can assure you there’s no need. If you’d like me to sign an NDA stating that I won’t expose you, Kara or this shadowy organisation, then I’m more than happy to do so.”

Kara knew that, coming from Cat, that meant a lot, and from the look on Alex’s face as she pursed her lips, she knew it, too.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.”

“Then I’d like to return to my apartment, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Of course. You have Kara’s number, if you need anything.”

“What if…” Kara found herself speaking, feeling the desire to do _something_ to help even if as a human she was practically defenceless. “What if I stayed with you for a couple of days? Helped you get a grip on your powers, so everything isn’t quite so overwhelming. Make sure you or no-one else is in danger.”

“Is that really a good idea?” Alex asked, but Kara only had eyes for Cat, looking at her with open surprise.

“Why would you want to do that?”

“I don’t know,” Kara said, shrugging, the weight of Cat’s gaze feeling heavy on her face. “I… I want to be useful, I guess. And to make sure you’re safe.”

“I… okay. If you like.”

Kara didn’t know who looked more surprised that she accepted – her or Cat (or Alex, who was looking between the two of them with a frown on her face).

“I would.”

“Kara, can I talk to you for a second?” Alex grabbed her wrist and tugged her away, although with Cat’s newly-enhanced hearing, she’d have had to drag her halfway across the state if she didn’t want to be heard. “What are you _doing_?”

“You really think she should be alone?” Kara asked. “I _know_ what she’s going through right now. You didn’t see me, that first day or two on earth, I was a _mess_ , Alex, and I knew what was happening to me. She should have someone there to keep an eye on her.”

“I don’t disagree, but I don’t think it should be _you_. You’re vulnerable right now, Kara. You shouldn’t be around someone who doesn’t know how to control themselves.”

“She won’t hurt me,” Kara insisted, and Alex shook her head.

“How can you _possibly_ know that? I’m not saying she’d do it on purpose.”

“She won’t. I trust her not to, and,” Kara raised her voice, speaking over Alex when she opened her mouth to argue, “I’m done talking about this. I’ll be fine, okay? I’ll keep you updated.”

“Kara - ”

But Kara shrugged off the hand that reached for her shoulder, taking quick strides back to Cat’s side. “Ready to go?”

“Mm. I called my driver. Don’t worry,” she said, turning towards Alex, “I’ve asked to be picked up at the end of the block, and not outside the building.”

“Be careful,” Alex said, the warning clear in her voice, and Kara nodded, waving goodbye before steering Cat towards the entrance that she so rarely used, usually preferring to hop inside one of the open windows on the upper floors.

“How are you so confident that I won’t hurt you?” Cat asked, when they were in the elevator, the floors ticking by, eyes curious as they met Kara’s, and completely unapologetic for eavesdropping.

“I… I don’t know. I just trust you, I guess.”

“You have a lot of faith in me.” Cat’s words were quiet. “I’m not so sure I deserve it.”

“You do,” Kara assured her, reaching out to squeeze Cat’s elbow gently. “You’ve never let me down before, Cat. What makes you so sure you’re going to start now?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it’s what your sister said – we’re all in uncharted waters.”

“But that doesn’t mean we’ve changed. I mean, yeah, you have my powers and I don’t have any, but… we’re still the same people. It just means you could kick my ass now if you wanted to.”

Cat’s lips quirked into a smile, some of her worry seemingly abated. “Well, I suppose you have a point.”

They walked out onto the street side-by-side, Cat pulling open the door of her towncar and ushering Kara inside. As they drove towards Cat’s apartment, where Kara was going to be staying for an indeterminate period of time, the cityscape flashing by the car windows, all Kara could think was uncharted waters indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely happy with the ending of this, but if I didn't cut it off somewhere, I definitely wouldn't have been able to post it. Maybe there'll be a part two at some point, if you guys liked it. 
> 
> Hope you've enjoyed my supercat week entries! I've had a blast writing them. As always, thank you for reading :)


End file.
